This books worst crime is being mediocre. The characters are fine, the plot is fine, but the writing style feels so hollow and shallow. The author also writes for comics, which you can tell while you’re reading. It feels more like a script or an outline rather than actual prose. Complete sentences stop… or break off into annoying ellipses. The story is told through a huge cast of rotating POV characters, too many to keep straight in a text based format, and none of their voices feel unique enough to differentiate. I just stopped bothering trying to remember who anyone was. There where characters I liked, namely Bell and Loden, but I just found myself frustrated when I was reading other characters’ chapters. The plot and deep dive into hyperspace is interesting as to me as a die hard fan, but maybe not as riveting to other people.

Ultimately, not horrible. But also not a great introduction into the High Republic. I feel like it’s would work great as a comic or some other visual format, but as a novel it wasn’t the best read.